RT Journal
A1 Morris NP
T1 A to-do list for the next us surgeon general
JF JAMA Internal Medicine
JO JAMA Internal Medicine
YR 2014
FD February 1
VO 174
IS 2
SP 177
OP 178
DO 10.1001/jamainternmed.2013.12376
UL http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/jamainternmed.2013.12376
AB
The surgeon general of the United States is a troubled position, largely forgotten by the public. In July 2013, Regina Benjamin, MD, resigned from the post, cutting her 4-year term short by 4 months. Several of her predecessors have publicly testified that political censorship and paltry resources weakened the office. Nonetheless, Dr Benjamin has been criticized for further diminishing the office through the obscurity of her term. Despite promoting preventive medicine, smoking cessation, and other worthy causes, Dr Benjamin was largely unknown to the public. Between November 3, 2009, when her term started, and July 16, 2013, when it ended, there were fewer than 20 unique mentions of her name in the New York Times, as determined by an online search of the newspaper’s archives.